Providing cellular data to a vehicle over different data channels

• US 9,418,489 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2015
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Macdonald, Andrew J., Gerlach, Jonathan L., Pal, Dipankar, George, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Alia, Curtis A
• Application Number:
  US14/674,735
• Publication Number:
  US 20150222553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 504 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks

Abstract

A method and a system for providing vehicle data services to communication devices located at a remote vehicle. The method includes the steps of: establishing data communication between a telematics backend system and one of a plurality of communication devices located at the remote vehicle; determining at the telematics backend system an access point name (APN) for at least one of the plurality of communication devices, a type of vehicle services data for the at least one of the plurality of communication devices, or both; and based on the determined APN, the type of vehicle services data, or both, transmitting from or receiving at the telematics backend the vehicle services data according to a network traffic shaping scheme.

Claims

1. A method of providing vehicle data services to communication devices located at a remote vehicle, comprising the steps of:

establishing data communication between a telematics backend system and one of a plurality of communication devices located at the remote vehicle;

determining at the telematics backend system;

an access point name (APN) for each of at least two of the plurality of communication devices and a type of vehicle services data for the at least two of the plurality of communication devices; and

based on the determined APNs and the determined type of vehicle services data, transmitting from the telematics backend system the vehicle services data according to a network traffic shaping scheme, wherein the network traffic shaping scheme is determined at the telematics backend system and associated with regulating performance of data transmission between the telematics backend system and the remote vehicle,

wherein the vehicle services data includes data associated with regulating performance of data transmission between the telematics backend system and the remote vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data communication between the telematics backend system and one of the plurality of communication devices includes cellular communication, or cellular communication and at least one of:

short range wireless communication and wired vehicle communication.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of communication devices include a vehicle telematics unit, a vehicle multi-tainment device (MTD), or a mobile device located at the vehicle, wherein each of the plurality of communication devices is associated with a different APN.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the type of vehicle services data is one of vehicle-backend private data, vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot data, or head-unit application data associated with the MTD.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the vehicle-backend private data includes safety-related data, global positioning system (GPS) augmentation data, vehicle diagnostic data, or traffic probe data.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot data includes audio data, image data, or both.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the head-unit application data associated with the MTD includes audio data, image data, or both.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the telematics backend system includes a call center, a remote server associated with the call center, or both.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of vehicle services data includes usage characteristics, transmission characteristics, and billing characteristics, wherein the traffic shaping scheme at least partially depends upon parameters associated with one or more of the usage characteristics, the transmission characteristics, or the billing characteristics.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the parameters of the usage characteristics include one or more of total data transmission quantity per month, data transmission frequency per month, and data transmission quantity per vehicle download or upload.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the parameters of the transmission characteristics include one or more of peak data transmission rates, variations in peak data transmission times, sensitivity to a type of wireless network, sensitivity to quality of wireless network coverage, sensitivity to quantity of wireless network coverage, sensitivity to transmission latency, data transmission priority, data transmission security, data transmission reliability, and data transmission efficiency.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the parameters of the billing characteristics include one or more of sensitivity to cost per data unit and sensitivity to total data transmission quantity per month.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the network traffic shaping scheme further is associated with regulating performance of data transmission between the telematics backend system and a plurality of other remote vehicles, the remote vehicle and each of the plurality of other remote vehicles comprising a telematics unit.

14. A method of providing vehicle data services to communication devices located at a remote vehicle, comprising the steps of:

establishing data communication between a telematics backend system and two communication devices located at the remote vehicle;

determining at the telematics backend system an access point name (APN) for each of the two communication devices;

determining at the telematics backend a type of data being requested by the two communication devices, the types including;

backend private data, hotspot data, and head-unit data;

holistically determining at the telematics backend system a dynamic traffic shaping scheme at least partially based on the APNs and the data types; and

providing vehicle data services to the two communication devices based on the holistic determination.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing similar vehicle data services to multiple vehicles from the telematics backend system.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the backend private data includes safety-related data, GPS augment data, vehicle diagnostic data, and traffic probe data.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the holistically determining step further comprises weighing a set of wireless communication parameters associated with each of the two communication devices.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each of the sets of wireless communication parameters include usage characteristics, transmission characteristics, billing characteristics, or any combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the dynamic traffic shaping scheme is associated with regulating performance of data transmission between the telematics backend system and the remote vehicle.